


Remembrance

by letitrainathousandflames



Series: Clone Trooper Files [12]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Echo Can Feel His Suffering, Everything Hurts, Fives Is Mourning Echo's Death Unaware That Echo's Still Alive, Grief/Mourning, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:40:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29525157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letitrainathousandflames/pseuds/letitrainathousandflames
Summary: In the day of remembrance, Fives takes a moment to remember his dearest brother Echo. Minific.
Relationships: CT-21-0408 | CT-1409 | Echo & CT-27-5555 | ARC-5555 | Fives
Series: Clone Trooper Files [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/863840
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16
Collections: Echo&Fives





	Remembrance

“Echo.”

The name flows out of Fives’ lips like a whisper. He’s sitting in the mess hall, surrounded by his brothers who are also saying whispered names of their own, each one focusing in their own task and keeping their voices down not to disrupt their brothers.

Remembrance Day is deeply important for all clones. The younger ones take a couple of minutes to remember the ones they’ve lost, and the really shiny ones just make a small prayer for their brothers’ safety, as they hadn’t lost anyone yet. The mess is usually a loud place filled with the sound of clattering cutlery, laughter and the occasional banter, and it becomes eerily quiet during Remembrance Day. No loud voices, no conversation. Just the sound of countless voices - that sound all the same - whispering quietly the name of men that once sat there with them, but now were gone.

There are all sorts of brothers here today: from the battle-hardened troopers covered in scars and tattoos, dressed in the armor and painting of their choosing, to the inexperienced shinies that made an older clone such as Fives uncomfortable at the sight of their still-immature lanky bodies and the adolescent shape of their faces, indistinguishable from any other too-young cadet in Kamino. The Kaminiise keep sending the clones out at younger and younger ages with every passing month of this war and sickens him to think that these kids are already being thrown into battling and dealing with the pain of losing a brother.

The older clones need to take a lot longer in order to remember everyone. Despite a few vode’s reluctancy to accept it, some of them had to resource to scraping the inner side of their armor plates with their names, lists too long to be memorized after so many battles, so many squads and platoons. So many losses. Others prefer to keep things the old way, try to remember them all from heart. Rex does it right now, sitting across from Fives and staring at the tally marks littering his gauntlets and the helmet on the table held between his hands. His eyes dart to each line as his mouth utters a name in a soft, reverent manner.

It’s important, to remember. A vod can only keep marching away in peace while others can remember him. If he’s forgotten, then he’s gone forever. The ultimate death - the one that scared them the most, as death in the battlefield would loom over them so often it was almost no longer a concern to some. If their lives were meaningless, worthless, then their memories, at least, had to be important. Had to be worth keeping and cherishing.

Captains and commanders have is worst, of course. Every single trooper, lieutenant, sergeant, ARC, pilot fallen in battle. All of them in their own personal body count. Fives felt particularly bad for the Wolffpack remnants and their commander. They would sit there the whole day long and they’d keep going through their names as they’d eat and even on their way to the barracks. He would hear Boost and Sinker discreetly murmur the very last names only at the following morning during breakfast, when they would be finally finished, allowing themselves to get up from their sleepless night and crash in the barracks for a quick nap before duty called.

Things weren’t easy for ARCs either. Fives knew it very well. He had made sure that he remembered every single trooper lost under his charge and under his watch since the first time he lost brothers - his batchers - in the Rishi outpost,b efore moving on to his batchers, leaving Echo for last as usual. He lingers in his thoughts and memories of him, making sure they will remain seared in his brain, bright and clear, never forgotten.

If you truly knew the vod you were remembering, saying their name feels a little too simple, so Fives would think about all the memories he had shared with Echo, no matter how it would make his heart clench painfully in his chest. The first ones are always the worst - the explosion, the fire, the charred helmet of his brother. His throat tightens, and he powers through, bringing older, better memories that make a bittersweet feeling bloom in his chest, eyes watering all the same.

“Remember when I smuggled a cat in the base?” He mouths quietly, lips curling in the smallest smile “Yeah you do, you even helped me feed her later. Oh, what about that time when I drew angry eyebrows on Hevy’s bucket? You laughed about that for a week. And then you ratted me out to him like the insufferable fool you were... ”

He keeps remembering, projecting it in the universe as hard as he can. _I remember you, vod. We will meet again someday. Wait for me._

* * *

Very far away from there, several systems away into Separatist territory, two droids are curious about certain data showing up on a holographic screen before them in a hidden, sterile laboratory facility.

“What’s the matter with his readings? What is going on?”

“No idea.” The droid looks up to a tank filled with bacta where a scarred, mutilated man floats with wires digging into his skull and all the way along his spine “he’s unconscious but…”

“But…?”

The man's features become slightly tensed up even in his state, drugged into slumber and forced to accept the constant probing and digging around in his thoughts and memories. His eyelids flutter even closed, his lower lip quivering some. His heart rate rises above average for an instant to then sink back into his forced state of numbness.

Whatever that was, it's over now, and his readings are slowly going back to normal. The droid hums, still puzzled.

“It’s almost like he’s _crying_.”


End file.
